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S cots have a reputation for being canny with their cash – little wonder, then, that they are laying claim to inventing the overdraft, decimal point and the Bank of England.

The nation that brought the world haggis and whisky is also responsible for superheroes, picture postcards, anaesthesia and the vacuum flask, according to “Wha’s like us? : A nation of dreams and ideas”, an exhibition which opens at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh today.

The exhibition also claims digestive biscuits and America’s Yosemite National Park as Scottish achievements, as well as Scottish innovation in the realm of jokes — perhaps